CMJ 2011 Highlights: Thursday, 10/20

We had a busy Thursday night at CMJ, catching some of NYC’s best all-female bands at the Tom Tom Magazine party and checking out some dance-worthy buzz bands.

Brooklyn’s Hard Nips made a bad day melt away with their high-energy, super-spunky garage rock.

Coasting‘s songs combine sweetly infectious pop melodies with hard-hitting drumming courtesy of the Vivian Girls‘ Fiona Campbell.

TEEN‘s classy, langorous and genre-defying songs feature stunning four-part female vocals.

Brooklyn-via-Japan quartet The Suzan is consistently one of the most fun live bands in NYC, playing upbeat, danceable rock they enthusiastically encourage the crowd to sing and clap along to. Keyboardist Rie’s creative use of different sounds takes the songs through a range of textures, from tropical to spooky.

One-man band MillionYoung crafts smooth and densely layered electropop with dreamy, echoing vocals. His use of guitar as well as keyboard and electronics provided a welcome change from the chillwave dude-with-laptop trope.

English dance-rockers Metronomy, musical heirs to Bloc Party, played for an enthusiastic sold-out crowd at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. In a nice creative touch, the members all had light-up orbs affixed to their chests that periodically glowed and flashed in unison.

Weekend‘s winning formula combines heavy drumbeats with a big new wave guitar sound and hazy waves of vocals. A surprisingly lively late-night dance party at Cameo Gallery ensued.